ii i£WP ■KM WiV roses*? ft*' I£S2H f BLACKFOOT INDIAN GIRL. Drawn by Norman II. Hardy. WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS A Record of Their Characteristics, Habits, Manners, Customs and Influence Edited by T. ATHOL JOYCE, MA. AMI N. W. THOMAS, MA FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE * * CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne, mcmix. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS Page NORTH AMERICA. By Otis T. Mason and Walter Hough I.— INTRODUCTION (8 Illustrations). Similarity of Aboriginal Races — Effect of Environment — Physical Character- istics — Language — Industries of Women — The Habitation — Social Life and Status — Aboriginal Babyhood — Childhood — Maidenhood -- Inter- mingling of Aboriginals and Whites 393 II.— THE ESKIMO (8 Illustrations). The Frozen North — Physical Charac- teristics— Language and Industries — Clothing — Food and its Preparation — Eskimo Household Arrangements — The Importance of the Lamp — Eskimo Women Potters — The Woman's Knife — The Woman's Boat — Tattooing and other Forms of Adornment — Hair- dressing and Ornaments — Decoration of Clothing — Eskimo Games — Songs and Dances — Social Life of the Eskimo — Birth Customs — Parental Affection — Eskimo Girlhood — The Marriage Question — Divorce — Old Age — Ex- change of Wives — Eskimo Education — Religion ..... 402 III.— THE NORTH-WEST COAST (9 Illustrations). Locality and Climate — Physical Char- acteristics — Food Supply — Clothing — Personal Adornment — Houses of the North-West— Tlinkit Household Arrangements — Woman's Work — ■ Methods of Counting — Social Life — The Origin of a Clan Crest — North- West Aristocracy — " Coppers " and Women — The " Potlatch " — Maiden- hood Rites — Marriage in the North- west— The Ceremony of the Crest — Wives v. Blankets — Birth and Infancy — The Cradle as an Instrument of De- formation— Cradles as Treasures — Child Names — Medicine and Magic — Funeral Customs — " The Spirit World " — Influence of Civilisation . 413 Page NORTH AMERICA [continued). IV.— CALIFORNIA-OREGON AREA (8 Illustrations). A Mountainous Area — The Hupa Tribe — Hupa Clothing — Personal Adorn- ment— The Acorn as "the Staff of Life " — How Acorn Meal is Made — Basket Work — Childbirth — Hupa Legends — Hupa Childhood — A Hupa Girl's Initiation to Womanhood — ■ Hupa Courtship and Marriage — How Divorce is Arranged — A Hupa Wo- man's Day — Women's Recreations — Hupa Magic — Hupa Widows — Maidu Women's Work — Indian Costumes — Fashions in Hair-dressing and Orna- ments— Curious Basket and Feather- work — The Maidu Dwellings — The Ubiquitous Basket — The Important Acorn — Curious Cradles — Maidu Games — Californian Music — A " Soup Dinner " — Maidu Birth Customs — How Maidu Girls are Named — Maidenhood Ceremonies — Marriage — Curious Courtship — Other Court- ship and Marriage Customs — Maidu Mourning Customs .... 426 V.— WOMEN OF THE INTERIOR BASIN (17 Illustrations). Tribes of the Interior Basin — Woman's Influence — The Wide- spreading Athapascan — The Shosho- nean-Nahuan Race — The Great Desert - The Pueblos — How the Desert People Secure their Food — Pueblo Cookery — Dress in the South- West — Navaho Houses — Ute Dwellings — Cliff Houses — Woman as House- builder — Home Arts — Women's Work — Women as Potters — Social Customs in the South-West — Zuni Courtship and Marriage — Zuni Birth Customs — Position of Navaho Women — Men as Spinners and Knitters — Indian Co- operation— Woman's Influence on Commerce — Man's Use to " Fetch and Carry " for Woman — Burial Customs — A Loitering Ghost — The Power of 2050176 IV CONTENTS NORTH AMERICA (continued). Page WOMEN OF THE INTERIOR BASIN (continued). the Pueblo Woman — Characteristics of Pueblo Women — Woman as Hero- ine— Pueblo Religion's Influence on Woman — Pueblo Mythology — A Zufii Legend . . . . . -439 VI.— WOMEN OF THE PLAINS (6 Illustrations). Locality — Dwellings of the Plains — ■ The Indian Cradle — Household Imple- ments— Indian Methods of Transport — Indian Women and Decoration — Courtship and Marriage — Polygamy — Divorce — Strict Etiquette of In- dians — Indian Childhood — Widows and Widowers — The Sugar Camp — Indian Games — Treatment of Aged Indians— Present Condition of Indians 45S VII.— THE EASTERN AREA (3 Illus- trations). Woman's Important Position — Cheti- macha Basket-work — An Indian Edu- cational Difficulty .... 466 VIII.— TROPICAL WOMEN (19 Illustra- tions). Locality and Environment — Central American Tribes — Position of Primi- tive Women — The Food Question — The Importance of Maize — Primitive Intoxicants — Dress — Typical Houses — House Furnishings — A Curious Bath — Indian Weaving — Pottery — Indian Method of Travel — Indian Trade — Indian Women as Artists — Woman and Indian Architecture — Indian Music — Mother-right — Position of Pri- mitive Woman — Marriage — How Chil- dren were Named — The Aztecs — A Mexican Tradition — Religion . . 46S JAPAN (-ii Illustrations). By Cliye Holland Characteristics of the Race — The Ainu — Japanese Characteristics — Beaut v in Japan — The Mental Qualities of the Japanese — Art and Dress in Japan — -The Kimono and Obi — European Dress in Japan — The Children of Japan — Child Nurses — Household Duties — Feast Days and Holidays — Courtship — Japanese Marriage Cus- toms— The Training of a Japanese ( '. 1 rl 1 , 1 1 lanese Home Life — Divorce — Education— The Japanese Ladv of Fashion — Women of the Samurai — JAPAN {continued) Page The Gtislia Girl — Work-women in Japan — Professions for Women in Japan — The Servant Question — Women Agricultural Workers — Hap- piness is with the Peasant Women — The Future of Japanese Women . 489 THE AINU (2 Illustrations). By Jessie Ackermann, F.R.S.G.S. Tattooing Customs — Position of Amu Women — The Woman's Part . .516 KOREA (2 Illustrations). By Jessie Ackermann, F.R.S.G.S. Class Difference — Girls' Work — Girls Have no Names — Korean Dress — A Land of Laziness — Woman and Reli- gion— The High-class Girl — A Curious Hat — Position of Married Women . 519 CHINA (13 Illustrations). By A. R. Colquhoun Popular Misconceptions on the Posi- tion of Chinese Women — Women Coolies — Conditions of Women's Life in China — Legal Disabilities of Chinese Women — The Principle of Woman's Inferiority to Man — Reasons for In- fanticide— Child Life — Betrothal Cus- toms— How a Marriage is Arranged — Marriage Rules and Customs — Posi- tion of Wives in China — The Suicide Habit — Secondary Wives — Family Life — Women Workers — Seclusion of the Better-class Women — " Foot-bind- ing " — Clothing — Coiffures — The LTse of Rouge and Powder — The Chinese Ideal of Beauty — Literature and Woman — " Henpecked " Chinese — Influence of Women in China — Devotion to Parents — The Position of Widows — The Future of Chinese Women . . . . .522 MANCHURIA, MONGOLIA, AND TIBET (7 Illustrations). By A. R. Colquhoun The Merging of the Mongol and Manchu — The Freedom of the Steppe —The Buriats — The Nomadic Mon- golians — Mongol Dress — Marriage among the Mongols — Position and Duties of Mongol Women — Women in Tibet — The Emancipated Women of Tibet and Polyandry — Dress and Or- naments in Tibet — Tibetan Marriage Customs ..... 541 CONTENTS SIAM AND CAMBODIA (8 Illustra- Page tions). By W. W. Skeat Geographical Considerations — Mongo- lian Influence — Indian Influence — Problems in Race Fusion — General Position of Woman in Siam — Charac- teristics of the Siamese Woman — Woman's Work — A Boat-race for Wo- men— The Dress of Siamese Women — Motherhood in Siam — He-girls and She-boys — " Is it a Boy or a Child, I Wonder ? " — A Girl's Progress — A Princess's Tonsure Ceremony — Royal Women and Women of Honour — Mar- riage Mysteries — Bizzarre Forms of Burial — Methods of Mourning 550 BURMA (13 Illustrations). By R. Grant Brown, I.C.S. Burmese Childhood — Demeanour of Girls — Education — Religion in its Re- lation to Woman — Duties of Burmese Girls — Burmese Propriety — Marriage — Domestic Morals — Elopements — A Parent's Vengeance — Women and Crime in Burma — Position of Burmese Women — Rights of Married Women — An Ugly Feature — Women as Traders — The Great Market at Man- dalay — Dress — The Use of Cos- metics — Jewellery — Smoking — The Charm of Burmese Women — Other Races in Burma — The Shans — The Karens — The Chins — The Kachins . 559 THE KUKIS AND NAGAS OF THE NORTH CACHAR HILLS, ASSAM (6 Illustrations). By Mrs. Frank Wilde A People without Records — The Kukis — Distorted Ears of the Kuki — Women Coolies — Simplicity of Kuki Women — Religion — Curious Wedding Customs — The Work of the Kuki Women — A Lover's Ordeal — Kuki Funeral Cus- toms— Kuki Dances — The Nagas — Bachelor Huts— Village Feuds— Naga Costumes — Naga Views of Marriage— Naga Dances — A Primitive People — Why Naga Children are Buried in the House . . . . . .575 NORTH INDIA (17 Illustrations). By F. E. F. "The Land of the Bharatas "— The Origin of " India "—A Land of Con- trasts—Caste—The Hill Tribes— Curi- ous Marriage Customs— All Hindu NORTH INDIA (continued). pAG] Women Work — Woman's Part in Reli- gion— Life Behind the Purdah — A Hindu Wedding — The Marriage Horoscope — Hindu Music — Hindu Dancing — Jungle Dances — Other Dances — Child Marriage — The Rani of Sikkim — Marwari Ladies — The Par- sees — The Buddhist States — Practice of Magic — The Smoke Charm — Amu- lets—A Spell of Evil— Witchcraft— The Mohammedans — Attractiveness of Children ..... 5S5 SOUTH INDIA (16 Illustrations). By F. E. Penny Variety of Race — Conquered but not Ab- sorbed— Race Characteristics Retained — The Mohammedans — Moslem Super- stitions— Position of Indian . Women under Islam — Submissive Moham- medan Women — Moslem Marriages — Story of a Blind Bride — Life of a Mohammedan Wife — Dress of a Mohammedan Woman — Religion and Divorce — Hindus of the South — Hindu Castes — The Brahmins — The Sudras — Hindu Women have no Place in Religious Ceremonies — Domestic Posi- - tion of Hindu Women — Not " Re- spectable " to Sing — Hindu Prayers and Offerings — Hindu Marriages — The Hindu Equivalent to the Wed- ding-ring— Hindu Polygamy — Pariah Liberty— Nautch Girls— The Todas— Polyandry in South India — Legendary Origin of Polyandry — Curious Custom as to Dress — Nomadic Tribes — The Hindu Ideal of Woman — The " Touches of Nature " that Make the World of Women Akin — A Hindu Non- talking Match : Man v. Wife . 605 CEYLON (5 Illustrations). By E. A. Crawford Where Men Wear Combs and Petticoats — Women not Secluded — Races — Veddahs — Tamils — Moors — Burghers — Sinhalese — Marriage Customs — ■ Weddings — Coco-nut Palm — Cookery — Children — Toilet — Dress — Sinhalese Grace — Jewellery — The Betel Habit — Education — Lace and Basket Indus- tries 626 PERSIA (10 Illustrations). By Ella C. Sykes Birth Customs — Persian Infancy — To Ward off the " Evil Eye "—A Child, a Doctor, and a " Demon " — Persian VI CONTENTS PERSIA {continued). Page Girlhood — Household Arrangements in Persia — A Girl's Education in Woman- ly Duties — The Bath as a Club for \Y( .men — Persian Women and Religion — Women's Dress — How .Marriages are Arranged — Betrothal Ceremonies — Marriage Rites — The Position of .Mar- ried Women — A Magic Well for Women — Woman from a Persian's Point of View — Wifely Submission — Polygamy Unfashionable — Visiting — Persian Party Etiquette — Femi- nine Amenities — Persian Dances — ■ Music — Superstitions — Unlucky Days — Charity as Insurance — The Signifi- cance of Sneezing — " The Healing Art " — How Women Attain to Para- dise 633 TURKESTAN (10 Illustrations). By Annette M. B. Meakin The Russians in Asia — The Sarts — Sart Household Arrangements — The Sart Oven — The Water Supply — Sart Head-dresses — Feminine Artifices — Sart Dress — Sart Nose-rings — Mar- riage Ceremonies and Laws — Sart Baths — The National Dish — Sart Chil- dren— Women's Industries — The Kir- giz Nomads — The Tekke Turkomans — Turkoman Jewellery — A Turkoman Wedding — Birth Customs . . 646 ASIA MINOR (6 Illustrations). By Lady Ramsay A Land of Varying Climates — Diverse Races — A Land of Beautiful Women — Mohammedan Dress — The Dirty and Ugly Jewess — Beauty Destroyed by Hardship — Progress of Education among Mohammedans — Christian and Jewish Schools - - Mohammedan Woman as the " Handy Man " — " Seclusion " of Women — Religious Duties of Mohammedan Women — ■ Truth about the Harem — Mohamme- dan Marriage and Divorce — Turkish Household Arrangements — Domestic Slavery — Jewish and Christian House- holds— Birth Customs — Mourning and Funeral Customs .... 654 TURKEY AND GREECE (6 Illustra- tions) By Lucy M. J. Gaknett Rai ial Groups — Polygamy — Position of Mohammedan Women Relations of Mother and Son — The Haremlik — ■ Slaves and Slavery — Recreations of TURKEY AND GREECE {continued). Page Turkish Women — Western Influences — Education — Albanian Women — The Nomads — Christian Races — Provin- cial Life — Peasant Life . . . 664 THE WESTERN BALKAN PENIN- SULA (12 Illustrations). By M. Edith Durham The Slavonic Invasion — Modern Influences — The Turkish Conquest — The Slavs — Montenegrin Marriages — Woman's Work and Position — Childhood — The Art of Weaving — Dress — Balkan Cookerv — Agriculture — Women's Pri- vileges— Dances and Songs — Mourn- ing Customs — Slavonic Moslem Women — Albania — Albanian Wed- dings— Dress — Position of Albanian Women — " Men " Women — Albanian Characteristics 672 RUSSIA (6 Illustrations). By Annette M. B. Meakin Mighty Russia — Old Customs — Sanctity of Marriage — Russian Lace — " Little " Russia — Middle-class Russia — Women Doctors — Democratic Russia — Em- ployments Open to Women — The Superiority of Russian Gentlewomen — Russian Convents — Emigration to Siberia ...... 686 AUSTRIA (7 Illustrations). By Amy A. Locke A Slavonic Empire — Slavonic Traditions — Position of Slavonic Women — Slav Marriage — Dress — Slav Morality — The Slav Gift of Song — The Hungarian Woman : A Contrast — Hungarian Marriage Customs — Hungarian Dress — Hungarian Characteristics— Rou- manians— The Future of Woman in Austria . . . . . .691 GERMANY (5 Illustrations). By Amy A. Locke German Types — Characteristics — How the German Peasant Woman Works — Absence of " Middle- Age " — Peasant Dress — Betrothal and Marriage Cus- toms — Position of the German Woman ...... 698 HOLLAND (6 Illustrations). By N. Peacock Position of Dutch Women — Women as their Country's Defenders — Racial CONTENTS vu HOLLAND (continued). Page Variations — Characteristics of Dutch Women — Quaint Head - dresses — Home Life — Employments for Women — The Servant Question — Don Ceremonies — The Significance of the Pipe — A Haarlem Custom — Home In- dustries— Girl Life .... 704 ITALY (5 Illustrations). By Lucy M. J. Garxett A Land of Contrasts — Italian Women's Rights — Importance of Marriage — Restrictions in South Italy — Educa- tional Facilities — Lack of " Home Sentiment " — Woman and Agriculture — The Olive Harvest — The Lace- makers — Other Industries for Women 7 1 1 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL (6 Illustra- tions). By A. Ue Alberti The Charm of Spanish Women — Spanish Characteristics — Decline of the Man- tilla—The Cult of the Black Silk Dress — The Spanish " Young Person " — Influence of Religion — The Awaken- ing of Spanish Women — Women's Em- ployments— A Land of Courtesies — The Pride of Birth — The Position of Spanish Women — Portugal — Portu- guese Characteristics — No National Costume — Woman's Work . . 717 FRANCE (5 Illustrations). By Clive Holland A Conglomerate Race — Physical and Men- tal Characteristics of the Women — A Conventional People — The Parisienne — Street Types — The French Peasant — Thriftiness of the Peasant Woman 725 SWITZERLAND (2 Illustrations). By Charles E. Roche Ethnology — World-famed Embroidery — Guardians of the Home — Education and Intellectuality — Native Dress Disappearing .... 732 BELGIUM (4 Illustrations). By Clive Holland Geographical Position — The Ancient Belgae — Two Distinct Races Living in Unity — A Common Religion, but two Lan- guages— The Walloons — Differences between Walloon and Flemish Women — A " Homely " People — Costume — National Prosperity Largely Trace able to the Women . . ■ 7}S -.- DENMARK (3 Illustrations). Page By Emmy Drachmaxx High Attainments of Danish Women — ■ Institutions for Women — Danish Char- acteristics— The Influence of the High School — Danish Hospitality — Feasts for all Events — The National Dress — Position of Danish Women . . 740 SWEDEN (4 Illustrations). By Mary T. Xathhorst Characteristics — The Position of Swedish Women — Work and Wages — Higher Education — The Peasantry — Town Workers — The Arts in Sweden — The Growing Influence of " Mam'selle " . 744 NORWAY (3 Illustrations). By Gixa Krog Norwegian Characteristics — Women and Outdoor Life — Ski-ing — Women in Civil Life — Enfranchisement of Women — The Dignity of the Pea- santry— Women and Weaving — The National Costume — Bridal Costumes and Customs — Mountain Life — Fisher- women — The Laplanders . . 74S ICELAND (2 Illustrations). By Emmy Drachmaxx A Primitive Land and People — Women's Work — National Dress — A Demo- cratic People . . . .754 THE BRITISH ISLES (3 Illustrations). By M. H. Morrison The Era of Enlightenment — As to Num- bers— The New Generation — The Initiative Power — Woman in Sport — Influence in Politics — The " Home " Influence — As Wife and Mother — The " Bachelor Woman " — The Power of the Middle Class — The Lower Rank — The Aristocracy — Characteristics of the Scotswoman — Types — The Irish " Mary " — No Middle Class — Influence of the Priest — The Celtic Tempera- ment— " The Gentry " — Welsh Char- acteristics — Education — The Possi- bilities of the Welsh Woman . . 756 THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA (4 Illustrations). By Charles E. Roche The American Spirit — Foreign Opinion — An American Woman on American Women — The American Mother — Education — Girls' Colleges — Women in Politics — " Miss Mapleleaf " . 763 LIST OF COLOUR-PLATES Blackfoot Indian Girl ........ Frontispiece Drawn by Norman H. Hardy A Navaho Indian Squaw To face p. 452 Drawn by Norman H. Hardy Japanese Women ........... 496 Drawn by C. Pr^etorius Woman of Lhasa, Tibet ........„,, 544 Drawn by Norman H. Hardy Woman of Eastern India .......„„ 600 Drawn by Norman H. Hardy Persian Woman ..-......„„ 640 Drawn by C. Prj a Drawn by Norman H. Hardy A Spanish Woman ...... V20 Drawn by Norman H. Hardy A Woman of Hardanger, Norway ......„., 748 Drawn by R. B. Paxton An English Girl .........,,,, 756 Drawn by Norman H. Hardy NORTH AMERICA* By OTIS T. MASON and WALTER HOUGH I— INTRODUCTION Similarity of Aboriginal Races — Effect of Environment — -Physical Characteristics — Language — Industries of Women — The Habitation. — Social Life and Status — Aboriginal Babyhood — Childhood — Maidenhood — Intermingling of Aboriginals and Whites THE North American Continent, until it was wakened up and rehabilitated by the white races, was not favourable to women. There are several reasons for this fact. It had not one animal yielding milk to help the mother in weaning her babe, and stories are told of children five years old still sucking at their mothers' breasts. It had only the dog for pack and draught beast, so the woman was also a beast of bur- den. There were maize beans and the squash family in t h e East, and abun- dance of nuts in the West. These all in- creased woman's weight of cares, and were not specially helpful with children. * Only the ab- original races of the North American Continent are dealt with in the following chapters. 50 There is Similarity of Aboriginal Races, CANADIAN a general similarity in racial characteristics among the women now studied, but their lives, spent as they were amid surroundings so diverse, ex- hibit sufficient differences to warrant separ- ate treatment. The most sur- prising thing is that a few families — Eski- mo, Algonquian, Athapascan, I r o q u o i a n , Siouan, Muskho- gean, Shoshone- an, and Mayan — owned nearly all of North America, while the remainder was divided up among a great number of smal- ler linguistic groups. This is most noticeable on the Pacific slope, especially in California. Keeping in mind the two ideas, places and peoples, it will WOMAN. be convenient to IMtUhampton. 394 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS speak of Arctic women, the Eskimo ; North Pacific coast women, Tlinkit, Haida, and others ; Californian women ; Interior Basin women ; Plains women ; and Central Ameri- can women. Many very important ethno- logical problems will have to be laid aside in order that the eyes may be fixed on woman's life and work. The Arctic shoreland .afforded opportu- nities to men and women alike to do their best, both in the industrial and Effect of the ;tsthetic life The sexes Environ- . ment. pulled together. Existence was hard for both, but not discourag- ing. The plains of the West abounded in resources, and put no curb on ambition. They produced grand men. They were the home of the buffalo throngs and of mighty hunters ; but the women all seem to be on their knees wrestling — not with angels, how- ever, but with tough hides of beasts, trans- forming them into houses, furniture, clothing, and adornment. Woman in this environ- ment was on a lower plane, and her rise came through abundance of nourishment, through the intense development of men, and through the domestication of the dog. But the South-West and California — and, indeed, much of the tropical regions here considered — were especially favourable to women. The dependence on animal food and animal products for activities gave place more and more to primitive arts associated with the plant world. Agricul- ture was a womanly function — maize, melons, beans, and other most nutritious fruits of the soil, added to seeds, nuts, and roots, were under the patronage of Ceres. The complete study of North American aboriginal women includes their biology and their rounds of duties. The Indians may properly be regarded as one great race. The Eskimo form a distinct sub-race of the Mon- Phy.sical golo-Malay. The skin is of Character- . J istics. various shades of brown, tinged in youth with the red of the circulating blood. Very dark in- dividuals are found in more primitive tribes and among the old men. Most women and school children, or others who wear cloth- ing, or live a more civilised life, are lighter in colour. A new-bom baby is of varying degrees of dusky7 red. The hair is black, but from much exposure turns to a rusty hue. The eyes vary in colour from hazel to dark brown. The skin is slightly thicker than that of the whites, and in adults decidedly more wrinkled. The hair of the head is straight, coarser than in the average white, and rather abundant and long ; on the body it is shorter and less abundant. The nails are dull bluish in hue and moderately tough. The face is well-rounded in childhood, occasionally handsome in earlier life, and much wrinkled in old age. The apertures of the eyes are slightly oblique. In women the roof of the nose has a wider and shal- lower depression than in men, and the aquiline bridge is lower. Thin noses are not found. The cheek bones are high and prominent, and the neck is never long and thin. The body is in good proportion, symmetrical, and, except in old age, straight and sufficiently nourished. The feet and hands are well moulded, and in many tribes smaller than in whites. In the more seden- tary tribes the women are inclined to cor- pulence. The Indian skull is slightly smaller than that of the whites of equal height — cranial capacity in men ranges from 1,300 to 1,500 c.c. ; in women from 1,150 to 1,350 c.c. The Eskimo differ from the Indians in skin colour, whiph is yellowish or light brown, with a pronounced redness in the face, which is large and flat. The nasal bones are narrower than in any other people. The Indians differ among themselves in stature, in form of the head, and in features. Stature ranges from 64 to 70 inches (160 to 175 cm.). The women are, on the average, 12.5 cm. shorter than the men, the difference being greater among the tall than among the short tribes. There are found in North America long heads, short heads, and those of medium length (dolicho, brachy- and mesati-cephalic). The Eskimo range in height from short to NORTH AMERICA 395 Language. medium, with long and high heads, broad and flat faces, high orbits, and narrow noses. Most of woman's speech was common to the tribe, but we should miss the most charming part of our narra- tive if we overlooked the fact that in all the tribes women had more or less a language of their own. From the nature of the case they talked more than men, reared the chil- dren, practised separate industries, each of which had a technical vocabulary. In the Caribbean area there were two distinct languages spoken, one by the men, the other by the women, as will be seen. But in others the differences were very slight. Art students have recently brought out the fact that in the same tribe women read into the same symbols different meanings from the men. They had also different inter- pretations for the gesture speech in certain respects. Woman's work was work ; man's work was war. But it is not to be imagined that a hard and fast line in any tribe or area separated the activi- ties of the sexes. Everywhere that men's occupation demanded assistance women were their helpers, and men lent a helping hand in those works of women against which there were not tribal tabus. Indians had to be fed, and women were the purveyors. In some areas this was a severe struggle. Cut off from other sources, a heavy load fell on women, and famines were not rare. The death-rate was high, and the whole continent sparsely peopled. A mixed diet was quite universal, animal food prevailing toward the north. In the matter of drinks the women north of Mexico made infusions from plants, but no stimulating beverages. Hough mentions drinks from fruits and berries by Californian tribes, and from cactus by the Puna and neighbouring peoples of Arizona and far southward. Everywhere there were food tabus, totemic animals were not eaten by one tribe; in others certain species were avoided for religious reasons. Also from the plant kingdom condiments and sweets were added to the menu. Dr. Hough assures us that the Indians Industries of Women, Pkcnjrafk by C. C. Pierce, La .!■: A PAIUTE WOMAN (SHOSHONEAN FAMILY OF N. CALIFORNIA) With a native sifting basket. The tribe is a degraded one, but they are good basket-makers. everywhere preferred cooked food, and, as a rule, women were the cooks. The art included roasting at open fire, boiling by means of hot stones, frying, baking in the ashes and in pits, stewing in stone and clay pots. Vegetable foods demanded each its peculiar cooking. For ceremonial feasts men were more apt to be called into service. Some of the methods of preparing food were adopted by the whites, and on the frontier the modern baking powder of the trader is a long step backward in good cooking from these aboriginal processes. Clothing is the next item, at the mere mention of which a dozen feminine pur- suits spring into view. Between Costa Rica and Smith Sound every demand for 396 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS clothing arises, every natural material for of beauty was universal among the Amer- its construction can be gathered, and icans, but sexual differences arose, as Holmes women are the clothiers. points out, from the varied spheres of in- A CHEMEHUEVI MOTHER AND CHILD (LOWER COLORADO RIVER). Behind the woman is seen the basket granary, in which the acorns, etc., for food are kept. The Habitations. What a vast group of ideas associated with women spring up at the words — tree-lodge, cave, cliff-dwelling, earth-lodge, ort, communal dwelling of planks, grass lodge, kiva, mound, pile-dwelling, pueblo, teepee, and wigwam ! For practical purposes they were the family home, the ceremonial house, the seclusion lodge, the place of storage. For the furnishing of these habitations women did their share, and it was the same portion that now she may be seen performing in the settlers' cabins and the farmers' houses in the same localities. The inter- mediate manufacturing arts associated with peace, by which vegetable and animal and mineral substances were turned to use, were woman's eternal occupation. The decorative arts were the industrial arts in the service of pleasure. This sense dustry of men and women. Elements having their origin in war and the chase, in myth and ceremony, and in pictography, were the creations of men ; the activities of women were connected with their domestic life, and their designs were derived from non-symbolic sources largely. Professor Holmes says that many of the aesthetic elements originated in religious symbolism and extended to plastic, graphic, sculptural, constructional, and associative processes, as well as to the embellishment of the person . Women's share in the aesthetic will be seen to have been the legitimate offspring of their strenuous toil. They plucked the flowers of the field, the feathers of birds, and shells from the waters to adorn their persons, and they ornamented their homes, their pottery, basketry, and the garments NORTH AMERICA 397 for men as well as for women, with poetic sentiments that sprung up in their souls under the constant suggestion of their in- dustries, social life, love, and religion. The question has been many times dis- cussed concerning woman's social status among these brown North and Status. Americans and her treatment by the other sex. Among travellers, opinions vary concerning the same tribe owing to predilections of the observer and exceptional eases, and also to mistaking the self-imposed and allotted burdens for hardships. From area to area, as they are described, the greatest variety of opinions - W'lure shall each woman's story begin ? A biography from cradle to grave, after a preface of ancestry and genealogy, would do for the individual in civilisation ; but in the tribal social life among the Indians the drama of the day or season shows birth and all intervening episodes — home life and tribal life, arts and art, the real world and association with the spirit world all at once. The story of American aboriginal women will proceed in such order as to bring out the story as a whole. In each life-progress there were epochs of extraordinary importance, such as baby- hood, the child, the girl, the young woman, maidenhood, the wife, the mother, the A HANO POTTER AT WORK Smoothing the surface with a gourd implement. The basin forms a primitive potter's wheel, which is a woman's invention. have prevailed. At once it will be admitted that what has come to be a pastime or drudgery in civilisation was the proper and expected daily task in primitive life. However hard her lot, there was more in her favour than against her. matron, the chieftainess, the priestess under several titles, the helpless old woman — the dead. For babyhood, there will arise at the out- set the inquiry as to how the mother and the environment solved the vital question 393 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS of "life and existence, so naturally prized, so willingly guarded by every living crea- ture." What had the gifts of Nature, and lack of knowledge, to do with the first step ? Babyhood formed the strongest bond of family life under the American Indian system of marriage, which al- Babyhood! loWed both Pol-Vgamy and easY separation. Parents were de- voted to their children, and the relation brought out all the highest traits of Indian character. In anticipation of a new arrival the father made the papoose frame, and the grandmother or some expert woman embellished it. Each tribe had its cradle fashions, and some of them laid a pad on the infant's forehead when the bones were soft, producing the " flat-head " type of beauty. The new-born babe was bathed and com- mitted to a nurse until the mother could care for it, which was not for long. Owing to lack of weaning foods, children were often suckled two years or more, and ignorance of sanitary rules produced terrible infant mor- tality in almost every tribe, with the result that before the coming of the whites the population remained almost stationary. The child sisters or cousins of the baby wen' its attendants, and developed thereby the motherly instinct. The child was kept in its cradle only to be carried about, and at home was practically without restraint and, except in severe weather, wore little or no clothing. The babe might be named soon after birth, or not for a year or more, this first name being discarded later on. The giving of the first name was accompanied by special rites. Twins were esteemed un- canny, and in some tribes one or both were killed. Deformed children are said to have been put to death, but cripples, on the other hand, were treated with tenderness. Childhood was woman's care then as it is now, and the little boy, as well as the little girl, had no lack of female guardians and practical teachers under the peculiar clan and gentile society of the many tribes. In addition to this general education, the „..,.,_ bovs were led through a series Childhood. , . ... of initiatory rites — ■ such as boring the ears, investment with the breech clout at the age of nine or ten, tattoo- ing, first insertion of labrets (lip-plugs), scourgings, severe or pretended. At ten the Powhattan boys were made unconscious, and those of the Plains were enrolled into the first degree of the warrior society. Girls had their toys and games, dolls, and play houses. They were fond of pets, particularly puppies, which they dressed and carried on their backs like babies. In the Pueblo country figurines of ceremonies were distributed as dolls, thus impressing the ceremonies in tangible form. Girls were their mothers' companions, and were early initiated into all the arts of home life. They as well as boys were care- fully instructed by their elders in the ethics, traditions, and religious ideas of the tribe. The girl grew up with little of the hourly restraints that surround her class in modern society. Instruction and obedience were enforced by suggestion, the love of follow- ing suit, and emulation, rather than by physical punishment. The sense of things in common dominated even the circle of playmates. At about the age of thirteen to fifteen girlhood was at an end. In all the Indian tribes here studied the period of life in the young female that „ , . . , marked the passage from child- Maidenhood. . , r., , hood to maidenhood, or in- cipient womanhood, was regarded with awe. The young woman was at that time placed in a separate lodge or apartment under the conviction that all her future life would be under the spell of her experiences at that season. Her subtle influence extended be- yond herself to other persons, and to the smallest thing. It is easy to believe that such a thought, held in common throughout a community, would find no difficulty in working its own realisation. It often reminded the early settlers in America of the multitudinous laws in the Old Testament about ceremonial cleanness MEXICAN WOMEN MAKING THEIR TORTILLA (Thin cake bread, resembling pancakes). A MEXICAN WOMAN'S WASHING-DAY. Photograph by Scott, 400 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS and uncleanness. So the young Indian female lived apart, the time varying from a few days to a year. Swanton records that the longer isolation was endured by girls of wealthy or aristocratic families. The recluse prepared her own food, or had it She was also forced to sit up for long periods to prevent her from becoming lazy. The customs varied from tribe to tribe, but they all had symbolical meanings with reference to her future life. Whatever she did in this prophetic period would follow her. If PAIUTE (SHOSHONEAN) WOMAN. UTAH. The tribal type of cradle is by her side. brought to her by her mother or some old woman, the only person with whom she had any communication. Her dishes, spoons, and other utensils were kept separ- ate from all others, and had to be washed thoroughly before they could be used again, or, as among the Iroquois, an entirely new set was provided for her. A Cheyenne girl purified herself by allowing smoke from sweet grass, cedar needles, and white sage to pass over her body inside of her blankets. she ate too much she would be a glutton ; if she talked too much, would be garrulous ; if she laughed much, would be silly ; if she prevaricated, would be untruthful ; and so on, to the end of a most interesting list. The period is filled with many tabus. The young woman must not look at this or that, and may not do a host of things that would but greatly perplex and annoy the reader. Not so the Indian girl. Riches, honours, long life, health, all awaited her NORTH AMERICA 401 strict observance of rules. Not only were a long list of actions tabu to her, but she was also the same to others, not only to human beings, but to the spirit and the animal world. The awful influences that went out from her affected inanimate objects, such as tackle or gambling sticks, and she could heal by her touch. bring that it has been chiefly through the women. The half-castes everywhere are chiefly the children of Indian mothers. It is a rare thing for a white woman to marry one of the other race. Also activities forced upon the not men's, but women's. Intermingling of Aboriginals and Whites. the industrial Indians were MEXICAN WOMEN (STATE OF OAXACA; SPINNING. Photograph by Scott. Her period of seclusion ended with feast- ing or public ceremonies, and some changes in her dress or adornment. The Hopi girl in Arizona, who wore her hair formerly in whorls imitating the squash flower, one over each ear, after marriage changed her coiffure to a simple braid. All these cere- monies and tabus were in the nature of a consecration and protection to the incipient woman. This close connection between social customs and the tribal cult will at once recall Cicero's assertion that all the artificialities of human life have a common bond, and are associated by a kind of fellowship. In each area there has been blood and industrial mingling, the most significant fact 51 Bloody massacres have followed govern- mental efforts to compel the men to engage in farming. Not so the women. Garden- ing, sewing, weaving, household cares under better shelter and protection, were not tabooed nor irksome. The women there- fore are the saviours of those that survive. Father Morice suggests, as a motive why the Indian woman more easily becomes a part of our civilisation than the man, that her lot was so terribly hard that she had everything to gain and scarcely any- thing to lose by the change. Ethnologists are wont to speak of stages of culture as though they resemble the distinct stories of houses. Cultures and tribes grow and decline just like individuals by insensible degrees. It is not true to 402 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS the facts to regard the peoples of North America as possessing separate cultures. They all belong to one culture the qualities of which fade into one another. As in the individual woman's life its current at cer- tain points has shallows and falls, so in North American primitive peoples Mayan or Aztec women will seem to be on an eleva- tion quite above that of the Utes. But a comprehensive view reveals innumerable connecting links. The question will often occur whether, after all things are con- sidered, these Indian women were nearer in tune with Nature. Has the artificialising of human life improved the air breathed, the water drunk, the food eaten, the raiment worn, the care of the skin, the sunlight en- joyed, work and exercise, rest and sleep, the pace and stress of life, the personal habits ? Since life is longer, on the whole, yes. It happens, however, that elevation and de- pression are related. The greatest virtues are shadowed by the greatest crimes, the greatest successes are neighboured by the deepest miseries. The advent of the white man has brought radical changes into the life of the native, and many customs and beliefs are rapidly fading into disuse — in fact have disappeared over large areas. Still they are typical of the life of the people of this continent, and so cannot be passed over without mention. For the sake of uniformity the present tense is used throughout this sketch, but the reader must bear in mind that in many localities the old ceremonies have become obsolete. Having taken a bird's eye view of North America in association with aboriginal women, a few of its environments or cul- ture-areas may now be scrutinised one by one in the following order : — i. Arctic area, Eskimo women. 2. North-west Coast insular area — Tlinkit and Haida women. 3. California-Oregon area — Hupa and Maidu women. 4. Interior Basm desert area — sedentary tribes and unsettled groups. 5. Plains area — Siouan and other women. 6. Atlantic slope area — Algonquian, Iro- quoian, and Muskhogean women. 7. Tropical North American area — Mexi- can and Caribbean women. II— THE ESKIMO The Frozen North — Physical Characteristics — Language and Industries — Clothing — Food and its Preparation — Eskimo Household Arrangements — The Importance of the Lamp — Eskimo Women Potters — The Woman's Knife — The Woman's Boat — Tattooing and other Forms of Adorn- ment— Hair-dressing and Ornaments — Decoration of Clothing — Eskimo Games — Songs and Dances — Social Life of the Eskimo — Birth Customs — Parental Affection — Eskimo Girlhood — The Marriage Question — Divorce — Old Age- — Exchange of Wives — Eskimo Education — Religion I^SKIMO women formerly lived along the j border of Arctic America chiefly north of the 60th parallel, from Eastern Greenland to Eastern Asia. Their settle- ments also extended to Newfoundland, if not to Maine, to the southern limit of Hudson Bay, and to the far- thest Aleutian Islands. But their range is now much curtailed. Their environment was the home of the Frost King, of six months' night, of snow and ice for building material. It was the lamp-land, and woman was the vestal. Most of it was The Frozen North. treeless, compelling her to make her utensils of bone, horn, and ivory. Vegetable diet was limited to a few berries, and her food supply was chiefly the flesh and fat of sea mammals, fish, reindeer, bear, muskox, birds, and a multitude of smaller creatures. In physical characteristics the Eskimo differs from the Indian woman. She is much lighter in colour and shorter in stature, has a long head, a flat, pinched nose, and somewhat Mongolian eye. Mur- doch speaks of her small hands and feet, NORTH AMERICA 403 Physical Character- istics. but is not as pleased with her carriage as he is with the man's. Although possessing a good physique, she is singularly ungraceful in her movements, and walks with a sort of shuffling half trot, her toes turned in, the body leaning forward, and the arms hanging awkwardly. This air and gait are not affected by her in order to attract atten- tion, but are caused by the exactions of her snow life and dress. A remarkable thing about the Eskimo women is their flexibility of body and limbs. They will en- dure for a long time the stooping posture, and that assumed by them in dressing skins of the larger animals, without great fatigue. The language by the women Language and Indus tries. spoken of this interminable coast of ice is remark- ably similar throughout, while that of the Indians southward varies greatly from place to place. When it is remem- bered that their narrow strip, if straightened out, would be 5,000 miles in length, this homogeneous speech is surprising. The industries of Eskimo women are especially the outcome of the environment from beginning to end. They will be found associated with man in those occupations where weapons are absent — in all sorts of manufactures, in transportation, and in training the dogs. Besides, there are a multitude of crafts that are their own, such as furnishing the house, making the dress under the most exacting circumstances, and preparing the food. The Eskimo have to dress in furs, caribou in winter, and sealskin in summer, and there are ever so many processes for under- garments and over-garments, for haired and unhaired work, for softest down and ESKIMO MATRON, PORT CLARENCE, ALASKA. waterproof soles. Wnmen do ever}' bit of this work, and have their styles and fashions in each locality. Both sexes wear long stockings, boots, trousers, and a hooded jacket, all of which „. *«_■ arc double. The inner part is Clothing. .,,,,, . , worn with the fur side next the skin, the outer with the fur side exposed. The married woman's jacket has a long hood extending far down the back, and a belt around the jacket under the hood sustains the infant borne inside on the back of the mother. In her exacting climate the demands on the Es- kimo tailoress are great and continuous. Her materials in former times were abundant and v a r i e d , in cludin g the skins, intestines, sinews, bones, horns, teeth, and hoofs of reindeer, seal, bear, fox, wolf, dog, mar- ten, ermine, lynx, whale, walrus, goose, duck, and many more, if her exacting taste demanded. All of these skins were dressed, cut out, sewn, and adorned by women. Their costume differed some- what from that of the men, and consisted of frock with hood and girdle, inner frock, often without the hood, mittens, tight- fitting breeches, long stockings with hair inside, slippers lined with dry, soft material, and outer boots. On the woman's frock the hood is larger, while the front and back extend downward in longer flaps. Boas* intimates that artistic ideas were not highly developed among the Eskimo. But with better needles and new ideas to inspire them, these Northern tailors turn out beautiful work, both in the East and the West. The food of Eskimo women is almost wholly animal, being derived from the land, the air, and the water, not forgetting the * "The Central Eskimo." 404 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS ice and snow. It is eaten either raw or cooked, usually the latter. Neither is there YOUNG ESKIMO WOMAN, PORT CLARENCE, ALASKA. particular choice of parts — indeed, certain portions, which in England would be con- sidered offal, are special Food and dainties with them. The cap- its Prepara- . ... . ,, tion ture and gathering of these creatures is the duty of men, though women are not excluded from the hunt. But the moment the dead animal is secured, woman's many tasks begin — hauling the game home, skinning animals, dressing hides, cutting up and curing meat, preparing it for consumption, purveying, and general housekeeping. They have no regular hours for meals, but eat when- ever they are hungry and have leisure. The women keep a supply of cooked food on hand ready for emergencies. When the men are working together, the women at intervals through the day prepare dishes of meat which the men eat by themselves or are fed until gorged by the women. When a family returns from the spring hunt, with plenty of venison, they keep open house. Eskimo Household Arrange- ments. subterranean, the sides being of stone and whalebones, and the roof of poles and bones, over which is stretched a cover of skin. Outside of this may be a layer of small shrubs and another layer of skin, weighted down with stones. In other localities earth and moss are used. The doorway and front hall con- sist of a subterranean passage, lower at the outer end, as may be imagined, to keep out the demon of cold. For the houses of snow, blocks are cut out with long, thin knives of ivory or bone, and fitted into the tiniest of domes, the only mortar being the frost. Bedroom, kitchen, dining, and sitting room are all one ; but storage rooms, especially for the snow houses, are built apart. The beds are on a bench of earth, or snow, over- laid with brush and skins. The lamps with all their accessories are on the side. Just as soon as the sun returns, after the long winter, the Eskimo women dwell in tents set up on poles, where Nature is kind enough to furnish them ; but it is mosl interesting to see how the}' lash together short bits of bone, narwhal tusks, wood ESKIMO WOMAN, AGED 23, PORT CLARENCE. ALASKA. Boas tells us that Eskimo women live in from whaling ships, and drift, to form the tents in summer, and two kinds of winter support of a shelter of skins. houses — the underground permanent home, Household utensils are reduced to the and the snow hut. The former is semi- lowest terms, noteworthy specially for NORTH AMERICA 405 omissions rather than variety. Vessels of wood, bone, baleen, and animal integuments answer many purposes. The most service- able is the lamp with its accessories. Women must have invented the lamp ; at any rate, without it there would have lated the Eskimo women about Bristol Bay to make their lamps of clay. Of the influence of the lamp, Dr. Walter Hough remarks ; " The extent to which the lamp has entered into Eskimo life as a social factor is very great. It is essentially tlic care and possession of the women, ■/ I>> Ceorgt /■'. Cordon, ESKIMO WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN, KING'S ISLAND. ALASKA, Showing tattooed patterns on the arms. The Import- ance of the Lamp. a turnover. been no Eskimo. Lamps are illuminators, heaters, dryers for wet clothing, and cook- ing stoves, especially in the six months of darkness and cold. They are shallow dishes, straight along one side like The wick of moss or fibre is spread along the straight front edge, and the cavity is filled with seal blubber, which furnishes the fat. Obtaining this, setting up the lamp and trimming it constantly develops much knack and skill. As the soapstone of which lamps and cooking pots are usually made is not found everywhere, it is a great factor in Eskimo commerce, which extends sometimes as much as a thousand miles. Failure of soapstone stimu- peculiarly the sign of the social unit, and though several families may inhabit the same igloo, each maternal head must have her own lamp. ' A woman without a lamp ' is an expression which betokens, of all beings, the most wretched among the Eskimo. The lamp is placed in the woman's grave." Women were the potters among the Eskimo, their ware being restricted to lamps and the requisite cook- ing vessels. Clay from the tundra was reduced to a smooth paste by mixing with walrus blood and kneading it with the hands. Sand from the beach was added, together Eskimo Women Potters, 406 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS with fine feathers. The vessel was built up with the hands or by means of a paddle. Compared with the Indian pottery of the Pueblos, this ware is very plain ; however, some ornamentation was effected in the form of lines made with a pointed stick, a pitted surface produced by means of a roughly carved paddle, or by wrapping the unbaked vessel in grass matting which left its impression. A word about the woman's knife. Hun- dreds of them may be seen round the kitchens of civilisation as hash The cutters, called " chopping Woman's . . , , , + • -I Knife. knives ; but you must visit the saddler and watch him cut leather to understand the tool in its most primitive function. In old times the blade was of slate or harder stone, but the trader and the whaler have substituted a far better one of steel. With this knife-of-all- trades the women prepare hides and cut out garments. The woman's boat in Eskimoland, like its namesake, is the burden-bearer, and quite unlike the kaiak, or man's The boat. It is practically an open Woman's . ^ ... J, y , Boat. coracle, or scow, with framework of wood or whale ribs, over which the covering of seal or walrus hide is tightly stretched. A dainty sail — made of thin intestines — is sometimes added. The steering is done with a long paddle. The aesthetic life of the Eskimo woman is made up of adornment and enjoy- ments. The women nearly all Tattooing are tattooed, and in some Forms of localities the designs are Adornment, quite elaborate. They are chiefly marked on the chin or about the mouth with one or more stripes, but the arms, breast, and back are also brought into service. The original motive seems to have been fashion or social rule, but it is related of one that she tattooed whale marks in the corners of her mouth to show that she was the wife of a successful hunter. But Eskimo women. in company with their husbands, had a more barbarous fashion than tattooing, called by Dall " labretifery." So far as is known, it was practised only by those living west of the Mackenzie River ; in- deed, the habit prevailed much more widely among the men. Captain Cook says that in Cook's Inlet the under lip was slit parallel with the mouth, the incision being com- menced during infancy. " In adults it was often two inches long. In it was inserted a flat, narrow ornament, made of a solid shell or bone, cut into little narrow pieces like small teeth, almost down to the base or thickest part, which has a small pro- jecting bit at each end, which supports it when put into the incision. . . . Others have the lower lip perforated into separate holes, and then the ornament consists of as many distinct shelly studs, whose points are pushed through these holes." But the number of studs, their loca- tion in the lip, their materials, size, and form were matter of fashion from place to place. The usual custom of dressing the hair is to part it in the middle from the fore- head to the nape of the neck, Hair-dressing and to gather it into a club Ornaments. on eacn s^e behind the ear. The club is twisted or braided and adorned, not with gay ribbons, but with leather strips, beads, brass buttons, and the like. The marrow of the reindeer is sometimes used for pomatum. The women are tidy in arranging the hair, and Mur- doch* never saw one of them bald. Earrings, says Murdoch, are worn by nearly all the women. In olden times these were little hooks of walrus ivory, but trade has long since added cheap jewellery in abundance. Gordonf adds to earrings necklaces of glass beads and brace- lets of the same materials. Besides the adornment of the person, the Eskimo woman's taste runs riot in the * " Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition." f "Notes on the Western Eskimo." NORTH AMERICA 407 Eskimo Games. decoration of clothing. Here she has the advantage, because there is so much of it ; and she busies her fancy ofctothing. and skilful fineers quite as much with the male attire as with her own. Skin, haired and un- haired, furs and feathers and down in all procurable colours, in masses and tasteful patchwork, gives her all the opportunity. The enjoyments of Eskimo women are derived from play and from the higher art of song and the native traditions, which are fosterers of art. The supple bodies of Eskimo women do not wear out all their energies in dress- ing hides. They join with men in their athletic sports. The girls play with dolls, have small models of domestic utensils for playing housekeeping and at woman's work. Storm-bound much of the time, there are house games as well as games in the open, all of which were studied by Nelson during a five-years' residence about St. Michael. Among them may be mentioned : — Toss the dart. — A block, 6 inches long, is sharpened at one end, and has a flaring cup at the other, 3 inches in diameter, with a deep hole in the middle. It is set up in the floor of the hut, the players squat around, and the game is to toss up a dart so that it will turn in the air and fall with its point sticking in the middle of the cup. Small sticks are used as counters. Jackstraws, or spillikins. Ring the stake. — A kind of quoits, played during the long twilight nights of June. Top-spinning. — Girls and boys engage in this game. The moment the top is spun the owner runs out through the entrance and tries to encircle the hut and return before the top falls. Each successful round counts a score. Football. — The ball is made of leather stuffed with moss and deer hair, and is about six inches in diameter, and there are four players, who stand each at the corners of a square facing inward. Handball. — Played with a rounded rect- angular leather bag filled with sand. The young men of the village form one side, and the young women the other. The game is for one side to secure the ball and keep it going among themselves. Blind man's buff. Hide and seek. — Played in summer in the long grass. Ring around. — Played by men and women, together or separately. There are two rings which circle about swiftly. Tossing on walrus hide. — Like tossing in a blanket, but the Eskimo get more fun out of it. The tug of war. — Played by women as well as by men. The Eskimo women are fond of tricks with the fingers, and have many devices in cat's cradle, making parts of the body, things of daily use, and well-known animals. Dolls and children's games in great number are included in Nelson's * lists. The Eskimo are fond of singing, but the men do the most of it, their musical instru- ment being the drum. In their Songs dances the women remain with Dances. their feet planted squarely on the floor, and, swaying the body and slowly gesticulating with hands and arms, go through the figures, always keep- ing time to the music. They carry a long feather wand in each hand, which they wave as they move. In certain religious festivals they use finger masks. Of course, what will be said of the Eskimo women and their social life must be looked at in its environmental set- Social Life tings which win eXpiain ali of the ° ,41 Eskimo. an(i condone much. As the woman all her life carries an infantile face, so all her arts and activities bear the stamp of, and voice the childhood of mankind. The Eskimo social unit is the family and not the clan, and is built about the mother, who, with father, children, and a relative or two, make up the household. Descent is reckoned in both paternal and maternal lines. Children after marriage may con- tinue to reside at home, either with the * "The Eskimo about Bering Strait." 4o8 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS husband's or the wife's family. The political unit is not strong. The households in the same locality do not form a social organisa- tion. The treatment of Eskimo women was for this reason somewhat different tribally from that of Indian women. They seem to be a good-hearted people, and writers speak well of personal treatment of women among them. Parry says that the women were treated as equals of the men, and the wife was always consulted by the husband when a more important bargain than usual was to be made ; and Murdoch says : " The wife is the constant and trusted companion of the man except in the hunt." When a babe is about to be born, the Eskimo mother either builds for herself a hut or tent apart, or is secluded Birth Customs. from contact or association with her people or their accessories. Even her husband is under tabu, as he can- not go seal-catching or even use the common industrial tools for a certain season. The babe is carried about naked on the mother's back under her warm fur clothing, made fuller for the purpose. Around the mother's waist, high up, a girdle is tied for support. When she wishes to nurse the little one, the mother loosens the girdle and slips the babe round to the breast, without bringing it out into the freezing air. Children are carried in this way until they are able to walk. The precise style of this unique baby-carriage varies from place to place, and the surprising thing about it is that the woman is not inconvenienced, but rather happy at her work, and the child takes its shaking up as a matter of course. Little girls also play mother as with us, and carry infants around on their backs in the same way as does the mother. The diet is so hard for adults that children are nursed until they are three or four years old. Infanticide is rare, Pirpnf *i 1 Affection. infant mortality great, and children usually much prized. Everybody speaks well of these Arctic children, and it is a glowing tribute to the patient little mothers that it is so. Murdoch sets this forth so appreciatively that his words are quoted freely : " The affection of parents for their children is extreme, and the children seem to be thoroughly worthy of it. They show hardly a trace of the fretfulness and petulance so common among civilised children, and though indulged to an unusual extent are remarkably obedient. Corporal punishment appears to be absolutely unknown, anrl the children are rarely chidden or punished in any way. Indeed, they seldom deserve it, for, in spite of the freedom that they are allowed, they do not often get into any mischief, especially of a malicious sort, but attend quietly to their own affairs and their own amusements." The little girls grow up just as they do everywhere. In all industrial employments they associate freely with their Girlhood elders, catching fish, fetching drift wood, driving dogs, so that by the time they are in their teens they are sober little women. Murdoch has gathered the data for study- ing Eskimo woman's domestic life. His opinion is confirmed that the Tne marriage relation was entered Marriage Question, upon generally from reasons of interest or convenience, with not much sentiment about it. The woman looked for a man who was a good hunter and industrious — a bountiful provider. It is not alleged that prudential motives do not have a share in civilised match-making, nor is it denied that Cupid had found his way to the Frozen North. Child betrothal, by which very young persons are set apart for each other in tender youth, is said to have been practically universal among the Eskimo. Marriages were arranged by parents. Murdoch knew of a young man of about twenty-two who offered himself as the prospective husband of a girl of eight or ten when she should reach a mar- riageable age, and quotes Simpson as follows: " As soon as the young man desires a partner and is able to support one, his 52 4io WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS mother selects a girl according to her judg- there were variations in different locali- ment or fancy, and invites her to the hut. ties. In one case there was a house where she first takes the part of a kiogak full of people, singing and dancing, to ESKIMO UMIAK, OR WOMAN'S BOAT. or servant, having all the )king and other kitchen duties to perform during the day, and returns to her home at night. If her conduct proves satisfactory, she is further invited to become a member of the family."* In other cases the bridegroom became a member of the wife's family. " One youth," says Murdoch, " who had had his lips pierced for the labrets just pre- viously to our arrival, was betrothed to a young girl at Nuwtik. This girl came down frequently and visited her lover's family, staying several days at a time, but we could not discover that she was treated as a servant. She went with them to the spring deer-hunt, but we were distinctly given to understand that the young couple would not be married till after the return from this hunt. When the season came for catch- ing reindeer fawns, the couple started off together, with sled and dogs and camp equipage in pursuit of them, and always afterwards were considered as man and wife." This matter-of-fact way of marrying seems to have been the rule, to which * Simpson, John (Dr.). "Notes on the Western Eskimo." Arctic Blue Book. Roy. Geog. Soc, Lond , 1S75, pp. 233-275. celebrate the marriage of the daughter of the house. Wife capture must have been rare in Eskimo society ; it is mentioned in Green- land by Egede and Bessels. Simpson says that a man of mature age frequently chooses a wife for himself, and fetches her home, to all appearances, much against her will. Polygamy, in the sense of having many wives, is not an Eskimo custom, and Mur- doch says that most of the men are content with one wife, and he never heard of a case of more than two wives. The same author tells us interesting facts concerning the selection of a wife. The man usually picks out one of about his own age, but, as elsewhere, reasons of interest lead to a great disparity of age between the two. He did not recall any case where an old man had a wife much younger than himself, but knew of several men who had married widows or divorced women old enough to be their mothers. In one re- markable case the bride was a girl of six- teen or seventeen and the husband was a lad not over thirteen. While it is true that polygamy was not the rule among this people, one man in NORTH AMKKICA 4ii Divorce. his time played many parts. As there was no special marriage ceremony, so there were no formal divorce proceed- ings. Marriage was regarded simply as a contract made by agreement between the parties. It was easily dis- solved on account of incompatibility or even of temporary disagreements. Two cases are mentioned where wives left their husbands on account of ill-treatment. One case resulted in permanent separation, each of the couple marrying again. In another case the wife, after receiving a beating, ran away and married another man. Her first husband followed her in a day or two, and by violence or persuasion induced her to return. They afterwards appeared to live together on perfectly good terms. But men also sometimes abandoned their wives. On the same authority, a young for the young wife proved to be a great talker. Said he. " She talked all the time so that I could neither eat nor sleep." So he discarded her, and not long afterwards he espoused another old widow. It is recorded with pleasure, on several excellent authorities, by Murdoch that quarrels and separations happen seldom, excepting between persons in their younger years. "The older they grow," says Cranz, " the more they love one another." Old women are scarce. The strenuous life shortens existence, but women of ad- vanced years are treated well save in times of scarcity, when they commit suicide or are left to starve. Old Age. One does not have to look far to dis- cover that the ills of life are made of the J ■ xHr * ^^^^ ESKIMO WOMEN OF ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND. BERING STRAIT. This tribe is almost cut off from the outside world ; famine killed over a thousand of them in 1860. Eskimo had married a widow very much same cloth as its blessings. In other words, his senior, who seemed to have a bad temper, this statement means that the legitimate so he left her and married a young girl, activities of one grade of culture survive His second venture was no more satisfactory, as the misdemeanours of higher grades. In 412 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS this category might be placed the custom of general exchange of wives in certain Eskimo villages — each woman EAclh.ange passes from man to man till of \\ ives. r she has been through the hands of all, and finally returns to her husband. Murdoch suggests that the Eskimo had, in a more primitive form of existence, lived in the state of com- munal marriage called pi ilygamy, i n w h i c h each woman is, under prescribed conditions, the wife of each man in the community. He mentions the instance of a man who borrowed his cousin's wife to go with him on a summer deer-hunt because she was a good shot and a good hand with the game, while his own wife went with the cousin on a trading expedition to the east- ward. On their return the wives resumed their respective husbands. The learning of Eski- mo women from our point of view would be Religion. AN ESKIMO WOMAN FROM NINI- VAK ISLAND, ALASKA. Eskimo Education confined, according to Ri to some trifling knowledge of medicine, of astronomy, and of the division of the year into seasons according to the movements of animals, the position of the heavenly bodies, and scanty observations derived from experience. In the matter of lore it is quite different, since they are in possession of hundreds of old tales and traditions which were familiar to women, and in which they play an interest- ing part. From them, in an epitomised and generalised fashion, may be gathered many of the lost manners and customs of the sex. There is only a brief space for that most fascinating theme, the religion of Eskimo women, their beliefs and practices respect- ing the spirit world. In Greenland the traditions unfold the creeds respecting the origin and history of the world, the souls and bodies of persons, the supernatural powers or "owners " of the world and of all things about it. It is Tylor's animism. There are the earth and the other two worlds, the under and the upper. The former is the abode of plenty and warmth ; the upper world, of cold and fam- ine. Its inhabitants are called ball players, and it is their game with walrus heads that makes the Aurora Borealis. Among the supernatural powers here of interest is Arnarkuagsak (the old woman), having her home in the depths of the ocean. She is the divine providence of the Eskimo, the source of nourishment and supply of other wants. And naturally so, since the ocean is the place for the regeneration of life. She sits in her dwelling in front of her lamp, beneath which is a vessel re- ceiving the oil continually dripping there- from. From this vessel or from her abode she sends out all the animals to serve the Eskimo. There are good and evil beings everywhere who may be exorcised or im- plored, and whose favour is won by charms. Women as well as men may become priests or angakut. The motives that brought about the dispersive social conditions of the Eskimo deprived them also of imposing rituals. NORTH AMERICA 413 Boas, who studied them on the spot, gives the following account of their beliefs. Sun and moon are sister and brother, the latter always in pursuit of the former ; or, in other traditions, they live in one house in heaven. She is the ruler of the sea mam- mals. When she was a girl she was given in marriage to a bird. When he maltreated her she tried to escape with her father, who had come to visit her. The birds raised a storm and tried to swamp the woman's boat in which they were fleeing. The father cast her overboard, and when she clung to the gunwale he cut off the joints of her fingers one by one. The first joints became the whales, the second the seals, the third the ground seals. She became mistress of the underworld, and controls the animals that originated from her fingers. The souls of those who die a natural death go to her abode. In the beginning children were found in tlie snow : tlie present condition was brought about by two girls. The narwhal is a transformed Eskimo woman whose braid became the tusk. The walrus and the caribou were parts of a woman's clothes that she had cast away. A woman run- ning along the beach bewailing the loss of her grandson was transformed into a bird. The Central Eskimo have an important annual festival in honour of the female divinity who protects sea mammals. Every autumn, when the ice forms, she comes to the villages, at which time a ritual is per- formed to rid her of all the transgressions that are attached to her body and give her pain, and also to send her home appeased. In some places the performance of the shaman is accompanied by masked figures, as with the Indians, representing assistants of the deity and other spirits. It is at this time that the queer practice of " swap- ping wives " takes place. III.— THE NORTH-WEST COAST Locality and Climate — Physical Characteristics — Food Supply — Clothing — Personal Adornment — Houses of the North- West — Tlinkit Household Arrangements — Woman's Work — Methods of Counting — Social Life — The Origin of a Clan Crest — North-West Aristocracy — " Coppers " and Women — The " Potlatch " — Maidenhood Rites — Marriage in the North- West — The Ceremony of the Crest — Wives v. Blankets — Birth and Infancy — The Cradle as an Instrument of Deform- ation— Cradles as Treasures — Child Names — Medicine and Magic — Funeral Customs — " The Spirit World " — Influence of Civilisation ON the North-West Coast of America, from Mt. St. Elias southward to Van- couver Island, dwells quite another type of women. The warm currents of the Pacific, breathing over the islands and uplifted shores, have clothed them with Locality verdure and forests of gigantic Climate. evergreens. Nature furnished the archipelagos, the climate, the soft tree trunks for canoes and for com- munal homes, superabundance of aquatic and land food, mountain goats for wool, and excellent fibres for basketry, matting, and other textiles. Here came the Tlinkit, Haida, Tsimshian, Salish, and Wakashan Indians under many tribal names, and be- hind them were spread out the Athapascan and Salishan tribes over interior Alaska and Western Canada. Canoe intercourse was easy, but, with the exception of inlets and coves here and there, approach to the in- terior was cut off by the mountains, be- yond which woman's life was under new conditions. The women of this coast area, like the men, vary greatly in physical character- istics. In stature the differ- Physical ence js as rnnc\i as four inches, Cnaracter= jstjcs_ the shape of the head is not the same from place to place, and the women do not look like those of other areas. Boas distinguishes four types on the coast of British Columbia — the 414 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS Northern, embracing the Tsimshian ; the Kwakiutl ; the Harrison Lake (shortest stature and broadest head) ; and the Salish of the Interior. The life is strenuous, and a bunch of the old women huddled together at some occupation is not pre- possessing. All who have visited them are struck with the contrasts shown be- tween them and the Indians of the other areas. Food was abundant in aboriginal days, and women had their hands full of work. The animals on the hills — deer, Supply e^> bears> wolves, goats, beavers, otters, martens, mink, fur seals — in addition to their skins and hair for cloth- ing and other comforts, also helped the larder. The staple food was the gift of the sea. Seals, sea-lions, and whales were taken, but the natives depended almost entirely upon salmon, halibut, and candle- fish. Women also gathered clams, mussels, sea-grass, berries, and roots. The preparation, serving, and preserving of this variety of nourishment called out their industrial life. There was not a piece of pottery in all the region. Basketry of spruce root, grass, and cedar bast, of superb workmanship, served for utensils. The soft cedar and other woods were in greatest abundance for canoes, cooking vessels, and dishes. By means of stones heated in an open fire the candle-fish were " tried out " in a canoe or vessels of hot water, and the oil kept in stems of dried kelp. Salmon and halibut were dried in the sun or over a fire, and in winter the flesh was dipped in this oil and eaten. The women strung clams and mussels on sticks or strips of cedar bark, and dried them for further use. Fish roe, especially of the herring, was collected in great quantities and dried, to be eaten with oil. Special attention is called to the providence of the North-West Coast women for the future. It is a long step forward in culture. Sea-grass was dried into square cakes ; several kinds of berries were treated in the same manner, to be soaked after- wards in water and eaten with fish oil, which seems to have been the general Clothing. lubricant. The wonderful carved boxes in which all kinds of provisions were stored are the treasures of museums. Dress is woman's care. It is both protection from injury and the framework for adornment. The natives, go bare-legged, the principal part of the clothing being the blanket made of dressed skins, or woven from the mountain goat's wool, dog's hair, feathers, or a mixture of both. In former times, the thread was spun on the bare leg by means of the palm and wound on a spindle. Cedar bast was made into soft blankets by twined weaving and trimmed with fur. Since trade came among them woollen blankets are extensively used, and are worked into aboriginal patterns quite in- geniously. At festive occasions will be seen a blue blanket with red binding, set with pearl buttons from the traders. The totemic devices formerly painted on robes of dressed hide are cut out of red flannel and sewed on to the blue blanket. Before the coming of the traders' blanket women wore pretty aprons and petticoats of shredded cedar bast. The most picturesque object in woman's attire was her large water-tight hat of basketry, worn when canoeing or working on the beach. It was of spruce root, twined weaving, and the workmanship was the woman's finest. On the surface was painted the crest of the owner. The women early adopted European dress with the ordinary blanket. Only in the coldest weather are moccasins worn . The women dress their hair in two plaits. Formerly it was worn long, parted in front, and club-shaped behind. Per- sonal adornment of the women included ear and nose orna- ments of bone or abalone shell. Those of the most northern tribes wore labrets (lip- plugs). The lips of maidens on reaching puberty were pierced, and into the slit a wooden or bone pin was set with the point protruding. The marriage of the girl was followed by the wearing of larger and Personal Adornment NORTH AMERICA 415 larger plugs, typifying power, respect, ami better than scouting about in the rain and privileges. The custom has now died out, darkness. and only old women are seen with this The permanent houses of this insular peculiar " ornament." and inlet area, which are among the largest of wooden buildings erected by savages, are The dwellings of the women are tern- the work of the men and consume several porary or permanent. In their Houses of summer the North- west, camps. in hunt- ing and fishing excur- sions, in canoe trips, the former will suffice. Near the mouth of a fresh-water stream, where salmon run thickest, a shelter is set up having a light frame covered w i t h broad strips of bark laid inside and out- side alternately up- ward, and held down with stones and cross- pieces. They may have smoke holes, but usually the fire is built outside, where the smoke assists in curing the strips of salmon and halibut hung on frames above it. The travelling tent consists of strips of A TLINKIT WOMAN, S.E. ALASKA. The dress is decorated with common white buttons — traders' goods. years in the construc- tion. The women he]; ) at every turn, and, what is important in this narrative, the permanent as well as the temporary shel- ters are erected in connection with them and their demands. Xiblack explains the structure of these marvels of engineer- ing and handicraft, which reached their highest development among the Haida. Further north the houses become mere shelters, and south- ward they are inferior in artistic construc- tion. There are three kinds : those on the ground, those on a foundation of logs or a slightly raised plat- form, and those on high posts. The Kwakiutl are a bark carried in the canoes. To erect the cosmopolitan tribe, and have several styles tent, two saplings are pointed and stuck of dwelling. Their permanent houses are in the ground, forked ends up, with a cross inhabited by four families, one in each pole laid thereon. The bark strips are corner, with a fireplace of its own. The rested on the cross pole, forming a sloping corners are divided off by a rough frame- wall against the wind. Along the water work of poles, the top of which is used for courses, where there is a safe canoe beach, springs of fresh water, shelter from the winds, and good hunting near, these frames are left standing. In primitive times the tent was made with walls of cedar bark, mats, or skins of animals. Piles of wood were left there for belated drying food. On each side of the fire is an immense settee, large enough for the whole family. The sloping back is adorned with totemic paintings. The bedrooms of these queer abodes have the form of small houses built on the platform that runs around the house ; though the women here, like their sex travellers, on the understanding that all on the other side of the Pacific, are born, used should be made good. This was far nurtured, seated, sleep, and die on the floor. 416 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS Tlinkit Household Arrange- ments. A TLINKIT BASKET-MAKER (S.E. ALASKA) Making one of their beautiful baskets. The Tlinkit, living between Mt. St. Elias and Dixon Entrance, usually build the permanent house on a slightly elevated foundation of logs, with three or four raised steps in front. Entering the door, one stands on a platform about 6 feet wide, running around the four sides of the house. Next, one steps down about 3 feet upon a ledge of the same width, also running around the four sides. The next level, 3 feet below this, is the solid ground. In the centre of this the fire burns, the smoke ascending through a square smoke-hole in the roof. The floor is covered with mats and skins, on which the family pass their lives. At one end the diligent housewife, who has sought out wool of the mountain goat and fine bark fibre, has set up the most primi- tive loom in the world. It consists of two forked stakes driven in the ground, across which a pole serves for yarn beam — that is all. The warp hangs down from this beam, the ends are carefully gathered into balls and securely covered with bladders. The skilful weaver is crouching before the loom, gazing at her pattern board on which are painted the heraldic emblems that she will weave in black and white and yellow in a rude sort of tapestry work. Near her is her husband carving a mask, but we leave him to look at another wife just beyond making a fine, umbrella-like hat in twined basketry. Her material is the long, delicate young root of the spruce. To complete the group, there will be the babe on the floor, snugly tucked into its basket, while another wife is bringing in a carved box filled with hot stew, which she dishes up with a beauti- ful spoon carved from the horn of the Rocky Mountain sheep. No spot in this barn-like dwelling is vacant. Trunks are carved and painted. Hand-woven rugs and mats cover ugly boards and vacant places. In front of the house stands the decorative column, the totem post, an immense log or half-log carved from top to bottom with heraldic animals, which proclaim the family of the inhabitants. Sometimes it is close to the building. In that case, a hole is cut in it near the ground for a front door. The erection of the column re- quires, among the Haida, the co-operation ^^Cl-J' " '-•— " ' _JrV", A TLINKIT INDIAN WOMAN At work on a basket. NORTH AMERICA 417 of many hands, the gathering being the occasion of a feast and a potlatch, or grand distribution of presents among the participants. In their active industrial life there seem to be no idle moments for the North-West or filaments, as the case may be, for yarn, thread, petticoats, matting, basketry, and many mure textile functions. For such work the tool-chest is not large, and was in former days much smaller ; but the bones of the whale were adequate for hammers, peelers, shredders, and spinners, guided by A TLINKIT WOMAN AT HOME. Showing seal skins stretched tor drying. Women's Work. Coast woman. There are grasses with tough leaves to gather, to dry, to colour, and to fit for their decorative functions. The young roots of the spruce, tough enough and pliable, but far from rattan as a textile material, must be boiled to bring out their good qualities, beaten with sticks to soften them, and shredded for use. Quite as important is the cedar bast or inner bark. When it comes from the tree it is in great sheets, looking more like an immense hide from the tannery. More work ! These slabs are soaked thoroughly for several days until they can be separated into strips, ribbons 53 nimble fingers. It must not be overlooked also that the young inne most bark of the cedar and other trees was in spring scraped from the trunk for food, when vegetable diet was scarce. Xo mention is here made of the equally exacting labour of the men in wood, horn, shell, stone, and metal. Xiblack gives an excellent account of the work in ropes and cordage. Their simplest lines are of kelp, single, or twisted in two or more strands. The neatest ropes and cords are from spruce root or bark fibre, twisted between the hand and the thigh. Mat-work is made principally of bark, in 418 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS checker or twilled weaving, plain or dyed, and varying from place to place in texture and ornamentation. Mats are the bedding, floor rugs, coverings for cargoes, and screens for camps when travelling. In the old days, when slavery was in fuU sway, on ceremonial occasions mats were used as vehicles bv slaves to carry the chief to or from the house. Basket-making comes next to mat-working, both being pure handwork. Most interesting of all the textiles for our women is the wool of the wild goats, which they do not have to shear, for at the proper season the animals obligingly get tired of their overcoat and wander through the brambles and underbush in order to rub it off. It is only necessary to walk about their haunts to gather wool in the greatest abundance. The washing and the spinning with fibre of cedar bark and wild hemp give the women a mixed textile for the world-famous blankets, which are the standard of wealth, as well as the bank- notes with which to buy wives and com- modities, and to conduct the all-important potlatch. To serve their purposes in the arts our coast women have their arithmetic and metrics. They count, just as we do, with the cardinal num- bers, but these have different uses. Dawson observed that the Kwakiutl have expressions for the first two ordinal numbers, as " first " and " next to first." They are seldom used, and it is difficult to explain the idea to the Indian mind. On the other hand, the names of the numerals are modified to apply in counting flat objects, such as blankets, spherical or circular objects, as balls and money, in counting persons, in making up lots or like numbers of objects, and in distributing, as " one apiece, two apiece." For standards of measure, after the same authority, the Kwakiutl women are quite up to our English folk. They employ the fathom, measured between the outstretched hands across the chest, as their principal measure ; the half fathom, measured from Methods of Counting. Social Life. the middle of the chest to the elbow, or from the elbow to the end of the outstretched fingers ; the long finger span, reckoned from the tip of the thumb to that of the out- stretched second finger ; and the short finger span, between the tips of the thumb and first finger. The social life of the North-West Coast, as elsewhere, will include the family, the village, economics or union in their industries, and cere- monies— all of which have peculiar relations to women and their destiny. The northern tribes of the coast have maternal social organisation, the southern have the paternal, and the middle tribes are mixed or transi- tional in this respect. The northern have the animal totems, and always marry out of the clan. Boas tells us, however, that these tribes do not consider themselves derived from the totem, as the legends show. The Tsimshian say that a long time ago an Indian hunter met a black bear, who took him home, taught him The Origin to catch salmon; and to build of a Clan „ ,, , Crest> canoes, lwo years alter he returned, but the people did not know him — he looked like a bear and could not speak. One man caught him, took him home, rubbed him with herbs, and restored him. He built a house and painted a bear on it, and whenever he was in want he called on his animal friend. His sister made a dancing blanket, with the design of a bear on it. Therefore her descendants to this day use that animal for their crest. This storv unites the beliefs on this coast to the Manitou dogmas of the Eastern Indians, and accounts for the wonderful intricacy of the clans and crests. The latter are carved on columns intended to per- petuate the memory of deceased relatives, and are used also for decorating personal ornaments ; they are painted on house fronts, carved on totem posts in front of the houses, and shown as masks in clan festivals. NORTH AMERICA 419 To obtain a comprehensive idea of woman's family life here, it is necessary to bear in mind the great, the dominating power of the system of aristocracy that prevailed. Up in the life of these people is a (lass of objects called "coppers." Along the North Pacific Coast thin sheets ol copper are shaped in outline like a broad axe-blade HAIDA INDIAN WOMAN OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLAND. BRITISH COLUMBIA. Notice the nose ring and lip-plug. North-West Aristocracy. Whether descent was counted through the mother, as at the north ; through the father, as at the south ; or through transitional forms, as among the Kwakiutl, marriage carried with it much of the destiny of the tribe. Instead of seal rings, medals, and other symbols of wealth and station, bound with a T-shaped ridge on the poll. On the face is painted and engraved the crest animal of the owner. It is like a bank- » Coppers" note_the amount of metal and Women. is small, but the " copper itself stands for the large number of blankets it brings in the festival at which it is sold. The oftener it is sold the greater the num- ber of blankets. The women of the tribes are, as it were, wrapped up in the " coppers," 420 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS The " Pot latch." for both they and these precious objects are standards of value and the mechanism of wealth. Furthermore, their nimble fingers create the thousands of blankets which buy the coppers. The dentalium shell was formerly used as a currency, but, as with other coast tribes, the blanket is now the unit of value. A somewhat inferior quality, known in the Hudson's Bay Company parlance as a " two and a half point blanket," is the standard. Niblack describes at length the universal custom of gift-making ceremonies among the North-West tribes, usually mentioned as the potlatch. The purpose in these imposing func- tions is to exchange favours and to buy good- will. As women enter into these not only to enjoy them, but as a motive in many of them, a few words may be given to the custom. To procure a wife, to retain the medicine man, to become a chief, to get your children into society, to adopt ancestral title, to build a house, to be influential, to atone for a wrong, to resent an insult — property had to be destroyed to show rage, grief, or indifference ; or it was given away to secure respect. Getting rich was a necessity, and wealth a subtle basis of the social fabric. In a potlatch all sorts of property was given away — blankets and other gar- ments, household and kitchen furniture, weapons, money, trinkets, furs, etc. Dis- crimination was carefully made in gifts for services, or damages, or marriage dot, or the ceremonial self-impoverishment proper. Among the more northern tribes the pot- latch is a perfect system, " involving," says Niblack, " more thoughtful consideration and balancing of obligations than the giving of a select entertainment by a well recognised leader of society." Dall (" Alaska ") told us long ago that the girls of the Tlinkit tribes, on arriving at the age of puberty, were considered unclean, and had to observe a ceremonial cleans- ing. A girl was confined to a hut apart during a year. Only the mother and a Maidenhood Rites. female slave could take her food, and she wore one of the broad-brimmed hats of twined spruce root, which are now so highly prized, to protect the sky from pollution. During this period the girl's lower lip was pierced and a silver pin, shaped like a nail, was inserted with the point outward ; the broad head prevented the labret from fall- ing out. This was her mark of freedom and graduation into womanhood. The slave girl was not allowed to wear one. On the release of a rich Tlinkit girl a great feast was given. She was gorgeously dressed, and seated on precious otter skins. The slave that waited on her during her seclu- sion was set free, and all her old clothing was destroyed. By and by, when the time of marriage came round, the little nail-shaped lip-plug was exchanged for the large labret, which fitted into the lip like a stud, and was re- placed from time to time by a larger one, until the old woman graduated by becoming the most hideous of mortals. If the reader were a North-West Coast woman, this would be her way of getting married. The usual coquetry, Marriage manoeuvring, and courtship North-West. taken for granted, there would be something more than merely " asking father," something less than the modern signing of documents — a plenty of ceremony, but very different from the drama before the minister. Boas tells us that marriage is a purchase, in which the result is not only the woman, but also the right of membership in hei clan for the future children. Many political or clan, privileges descend only through marriage upon the son-in-law, who dot's nut use them for himself, but for his offspring. He becomes entitled to them by paying for his wife, who is the first instalment of the goods. The crest and its privileges and property will arrive later on with children. Tins business conception of matrimony obtains throughout life. There comes a time when the old bargain is called square. If the wife continue with the husband, she does so of her own free will ; the husband NORTH AMERICA 421 •will then make a new payment to the father-in-law. If a man should have no daughter, in order to save his name and coat-of-arms he performs a sham marriage between his son and one seeking the crest, and. if he has no children, the s"ham mar- riage will be with some portion of his bodv. After the same fashion the crest and privi- leges of the family were provided with a successor in any emergency. A chief invited the young men of all the tribes to come to his house, and said to them : " Thank you, my brothers ; I want to marry to-day. Invite all the people. Now dress yourselves ; there are the paint and eagle down." Boas gives an excellent account of the traditions concerning the ancient marriages, described as " making war on the daughters of all the chiefs all over the world." The getting together of four hundred blankets, the going to war with them, the landing on the beach, approach to the girl's father's house, the passing through fire, the counting of blankets, the potlatch and singing, wind- ing up with the plain statement that " she went to live with her husband." The ceremonies connected with the re- turn of the purchase money and the delivery of the family crest to the The Cere= son-in-law were of the greatest monv ot ° the Crest. moment. They include the assembly of people in the house of the wife's father, the entrance of the latter with his clan, four of them carry- ing the mast of a canoe. After they have taken their places, the wife's father calls the son-in-law, who takes his position in the right-hand rear corner. The old man is told that the mast represents boxes containing everything he owes. The son- in-law then asks whether the sheet coppers, house, carved posts, and the old gentle- man's names are in the mast also. After an affirmative answer is given, the young wife is then sent to fetch the precious copper, attended by young men of her clan bringing blankets. The young hus- band proceeds to sell the copper for blankets, which he gives away on the spot. In this way he purchases the right to live in the house. These services are drawn out and varied, but they show how rank and wealth have reduced government of life to an exact M i> nee. The fate of woman, not merely in procuring her mate, but in deciding the destiny of the tribe, is sealed. Among the Kwakiutl. when a young man desires to obtain a girl for a wife, he must bargain with her Blankets. parents, and pay to her father a number of blankets. Owing to the great desire to accumulate blankets for the potlatch, and the scarcity of girls, the parents are very exacting in this respect. The young man may have further demands made upon him by his wife, who, at a hint from her parents, may leave him. The parents then exact a fur- ther payment of blankets for her return, and so on. The ever-recurring wonder at the treat- ment of the mother during childbirth among savages is here awakened. The Birth and t-v , ., ,, • ,, Infancy Tlmkit mother is ceremonially unclean, her babe is born in the open air, and the mother spends her allotted number of days in a shed apart. But she is from the first able to care for herself and for her little one. Trusting to nature, she is not deceived. She is far ahead of the civilised mother in this respect, but behind the Eastern Continent woman in that she must nurse the child far longer. The North- West Coast mother allows her little one to chew the raw blubber of marine animals, excepting that of the whale, for weaning food. The babe, on beginning to walk, is bathed daily in the sea. As elsewhere, infant mortality is great, but in the primi- tive stage of culture it is the unfit that die off, and there is no doubt that the rough treatment accounts for the robust- ness of the Tlinkit. The cradle, so-called, flourishes in the North-West area, and plays tricks on the physical anthropologists. After one leaves the Eskimo of the entire Arctic coast, 422 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS where the mother packs her little one in her ample hood, the cradle board of the Athapascan and the cradle The Cradle trough of the coast are en- asanlnstru- countered_ In each of them merit of Deformation, the soft, plastic skull of the infant is deformed for life. Either the cradle board or framework- flattens the occiput naturally and unde- signedly on the part of the mother, or the babe is laid in a cedar trough adapted to the purpose, and a long, soft pad of cedar bark is bound on the forehead to stop the growth there. The result is that the develop- ment of the young brain follows the lines of least resistance, and pushes the skull away up behind. Its size, capacity, and vigour are not reduced. As the foreheads of slaves are not so treated, it is a mark of aristocracy to be thus mutilated. When to this is added the rosette of perforations about the ears, the tattooings, the nose rings, and the labrets, the women now under consideration must take the prize as victims of fashion. Some of the deformities of civilisation are much more hurtful in effects on women, but could not be uglier. In the new race-life of the Indian woman the hideousness is laid aside. May it be hoped that the civilised will imitate ? When a Kwakiutl child had grown large enough to leave the little cradle, tied into which it spent most of its Treasures. earlier days, the cradle, with its wrappings, bed of shredded bark, and appendages, was carried to a recognised place of deposit. The custom is still obligatory as regards the bedding, which is neatly packed in a box or basket and laid away never to be touched again. Every village probably has such a storing place — in the cliffs, behind the village, beneath logs, or other lonely spot. The first name of a child is given by the mother soon after its birth, and is for girls that of a maternal ancestor. An- cestral names, remarks Niblack,* are pre- served with the greatest care, being * " Indians of the North-West Coast." Medicine and Magic favoured by the custom of erecting mor- tuary columns and preserving traditions. This is without ceremony. When ^hlld a wealthy chief would adopt a Names, J f son as heir to his possessions, a sister may figuratively take the child as her own and give it some ancestral name. The chief makes her a gift, and, when the boy grows up, it will be his duty to re- ward her. If the parents are poor, the first name must suffice, for with every new name must go a feast. Medicine may be administered by friends ; but the sorcerer, who may be a woman, devotes himself or herself solely to exorcising the evil principle causing the dis- ease. It is done by singing incantations, the use of the rattle, and vigorous sucking of the parts affected, which may be kept up for hours, frequently repeated, and must be handsomely paid for. The same writer calls attention to the use of charms in bringing good as well as averting harm. A Haida woman wore the figure of a halibut with the face of her chief painted on the tail to protect her and her husband from drowning at sea. Sickness was formerly attributed to the witchcraft of enemies. Certain persons are believed to possess magic power, and to bewitch an enemy go through a series of complicated ceremonies — pro- curing a lock of hair, some saliva, a small scrap of dress, or a few drops of perspira- tion of the intended victim. These might be placed with a small piece of the skin and flesh of a dead man, dried and roasted before the fire, and pounded together. The mixture is then tied up in a piece of skin and covered with spruce gum, and placed in a human skull. The whole is placed in a box, tied up, gummed over, and buried shallow. A fire is built near enough to warm the whole. Then the sorcerer beats his head against a tree and names and denounces his enemy. This is done at night or early in the morn- ing, and in secret, and often repeated till the enemy dies. The actor must keep as quiet as possible till the spell has worked. 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